The short version
- Each book is researched and produced by us after you order, for one surname.
- It is built from public records and reference works, written and illustrated with our own production software — which includes artificial-intelligence tools — and checked against its sources before delivery.
- Our rule: no name, date, place, document or figure is printed unless a source supports it. What cannot be confirmed is left out or marked “not confirmed”; tradition and legend are labelled as such.
- The illustrations, covers and coat-of-arms plates are original digital artworks. Facsimiles of historical records are labelled as reproductions.
- A book is about a surname and its history. It is not proof that you descend from anyone named in it, and not a grant of arms.
1. What our books are
Our books tell the history of a family name: where it is first recorded, what it meant, where it moved and why, the people and places connected with it, and the armorial record associated with it. Some editions add your own family’s account, from material you give us, or facsimiles of historical newspaper pages in which the name appears.
2. How we make them
- Research. We gather what the public record says about the name (section 4).
- Writing. The book is written with our own production software, which includes artificial-intelligence writing tools, under our editorial rules: the facts come from the research, and the prose is shaped to read as a book rather than a database.
- Illustration. Covers, plates, maps and the coat of arms are original digital artworks made with image-generation tools and finished by us. They are interpretations, not photographs or historical documents, unless a caption says otherwise.
- Checking. Before delivery each book passes automatic and manual checks: facts against sources, names, dates, the country of the customer, layout and files.
3. Our rule on facts
No name, date, place, document or figure is printed unless a source supports it. When a source cannot confirm something, it is left out or marked not confirmed. Family tradition and legend are labelled as such, in the same paragraph. Where sources disagree, the book says so.
This is our standard, and we stand behind it: if you find something in your book that we cannot support with a source, tell us — it is corrected under our 30-Day Book Guarantee (see the guarantee).
4. Where the facts come from
Depending on the name, sources include national surname statistics (for example, those published by the U.S. Census Bureau), digitised historical newspapers held by national libraries (for example, the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America), census and immigration indexes, national surname registers published under open licences, published heraldic references and encyclopedic works.
Each book lists its sources, with the credits and licence terms they require. A named archive in a book means the book relies on material published by that archive; it is not a claim that we searched private records on your behalf.
5. About the coat of arms
What a coat of arms is, and what our books are not.
In the English and continental European traditions, arms were granted to an individual and passed to that person’s descendants. They were not granted to surnames. There is no coat of arms that belongs to everyone who shares a family name.
What our books present is the armorial record historically associated with a surname — arms borne by documented people or families who carried that name — or, where the record keeps only a regional or family pattern, an achievement composed by us in the grammar of heraldry and labelled as composed. Buying a book does not show that you descend from any armiger and does not give you a right to bear any arms.
6. What a book is not
A book from us is a work of history and design about a surname. It is not proof of descent, not a genealogical certification, not a DNA or genetic test, not a grant of arms, and it carries no standing before any government, court, consulate, registry, church, insurer or heraldic body. Do not use it as evidence for citizenship, inheritance, immigration or any legal or financial purpose.
7. Material from your family
When you give us family stories, documents or photographs, we include them as you gave them and present them as your family’s account. We do not verify private family documents unless the book says that we did.
8. Questions about a specific fact
If you want to know where a particular name, date, figure or paragraph in your book came from, write to [email protected] and ask about that item. We will tell you plainly.
On the subject of method, this page governs (see section 20 of the Terms of Service).